venture bros

(S04E08) My heart is all aflutter. Talk about ending on a high note (Venture Bros. will return to finish the season in a few months, Lost-style). Just like "The Better Man," this Doc Hammer-penned episode was the perfect balance of great story and VB's signature comedy. There were so many great moments, quotable lines, and much-missed familiar faces, this quickly turned into one of my favorite episodes from any season, right up there with "Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II" and "Twenty Years to Midnight."

Yes, you read that right. Someone took the time to sit down and penetrate the delightful, twisted mind of actor/writer James Urbaniak from The Venture Brothers... in a bathtub.

It was part of comedian Sara Benincasa's web chat series "Gettin' Wet" in which noted humorists and comedians sit down to have a probing and in-depth discussion of their pathos and the process of artistic achievement and creation... in a tub. If you haven't figured out yet that this actually takes place in a literal bathtub filled with soapy water, then no one can really help at this point.

(S04E02) First things first. If you are not a connoisseur of '90s superhero cartoons or a huge nerd that has been closely following Venture Bros. news all the way through production, you may have missed out on the full "Handsome Ransom" experience. That is not to say the unaware couldn't have a good time, but things were made ten times funnier if a viewer knew that the not-so-pure Captain Sunshine was voiced by Kevin Conroy, aka Batman.

In case you have not heard already, the fourth season of Venture Bros. arrives on [adult swim] at midnight on October 18 (meaning the night of the 18th, technically the morning of the 19th). Mark your calendars.

This news has already been floating around for a while, thanks to sites like the Mantis-Eye Experiment, but things have been confirmed by Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer during their panel at DragonCon. Some footage of this has finally been released by AdultSwim.com, so you can stop crawling around YouTube for people's crappy cell phone recordings.

The Venture Brothers have all the trappings of a major, cross-media animated comedy phenomena -- except the popularity and notoriety that comes with it.

Written on the same brilliant scale as The Simpsons or South Park and drenched in hip pop culture references, Venture Brothers remains a show with a devoted cult following that stays just off the mass media's radar. And series creators Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer aren't sure why.

"We didn't even get nominated for an Annie (animation) Award," Hammer told me. "Never mind an Emmy. We thought we could at least get an Annie. We can't explain it. You probably have a better idea of why that is than we do."

Am I a terrible person for not wanting to get Andy Richter Controls The Universe? Not that it was a bad show, it wasn't. It's just not one of those short-lived shows where I say to myself, "boy, I can't wait until that comes out on DVD." I can think of many other short-lived shows on DVD that I would buy before I bought this one. But it's good to see it being released.

(S03E13) It feels like the third season started only yesterday, but it's over, kids. Even though it didn't end with a massive cliff-hanger like in previous seasons, it certainly went out with a bang. Because the lovely, creative people that make this wonderful show can feel our pain in waiting, Season Four is already in production and actors will be recording next month. Calm yourselves. If you're still looking for goodness to get your fix, check out our VB-related posts.

Check out this new AdultSwim.com interview with voice actor Michael Sinterniklaas, who plays, among other characters in the cartoon world, Dean Venture of The Venture Bros. In this video, you get to watch him get his hair cut. Oh, and he talks about The Venture Bros. but that's really secondary to my original intention of making sure you coiffure-fetish folks get your fill even on a TV site.

The best part is his Patrick Warburton impression, which was brief but sounded pretty spot-on. Apparently, all it takes to do a decent Brock voice is to drop your tone down, groan with frustration and say, "Ahh, boys..." Sinterniklaas also shares a story about one of his biggest fans' Dean tattoo, which is sweet and further enforces that the folks on Venture Bros. are super wonderful to their fans. Click after the jump and check it out.

(S03E12) Firstly, a bit of news. Both Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick, as opposed to a solo Doc, will be attending this year's Dragon*Con in Georgia, so go see them if you can. Secondly, the guys have done a video commentary for "ORB" and you can watch it on Adult Swim's website. Not as many off-topic ramblings that we know and love in this one, so if you miss irrelevance and mimed nunchuck skills, revisit the old "The Buddy System" commentary. And last but not least... This week's episode premiered on the Adult Swim Fix as usual, but this time there's actually bonus footage that was not included in the televised version. It's pretty self-contained, but definitely worth a watch. I've embedded it here, to save you that exhausting trip across teh internetz.

(S03E08) After a surprisingly Jackson Publick heavy run, we finally got another Doc Hammer solo with this episode (the first was "The Buddy System"). Apparently, the first half of the season just worked out to be a lot of Publick episodes and we'll be getting a lot more Doc Hammer scripts in upcoming episodes. Right on, right on.

This episode felt more like a Venture Bros. episode than the backstory-tastic stuff that has been dominating this season. Many hilarious moments, beautiful character interactions and gross-out moments were had.

(S03E06) I'm not sure what I just watched, and I'm not sure if I liked it. I recently realized that my anticipation from week to week has been less about looking forward to another episode and more about waiting for something as awesome as "Escape to the House of Mummies, Part II" or "Twenty Years To Midnight" to come along. The show is still amazing and all, but it's not packing the same punch as before. Last season, I had a new favorite just about every week, but this time around, I have to watch the episodes multiple times before I really like it. It's like I've built up a tolerance to The Venture Bros. Soon, I'll have to cop four or five viewings a week, just to get that same high.

Once again proving that I will listen to any nonsense Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer spit, I fought crippling 3AM sleepiness just to get through this commentary (hidden under the "Extras" buttons) for the latest Venture Bros.episode, "The Buddy System". That's right, no need to wait for the Season Three DVD to come out, because you can learn about Doc and Jackson's thoughts on above ground pools right now. Best of all, it's video, so we feel the full impact of their wildly off-topic conversations and also get to admire how these two look more like rock stars than the minds behind Metalocalypse. Compared to their DVD commentaries, though, they managed to offer quite a bit of episode-specific information.

(S03E05) In last week's review for "Home Is Where The Hate Is," I mentioned how I felt the season so far has all been set-up, set-up, set-up and we're still waiting for the punchline. I mean, it's been hilarious and beautifully animated set-up, but it's been set-up nonetheless. With "The Buddy System," we're finally getting back to everyday life on the Venture compound. It feels good to get a better sense of the family's present.

(S03E04) Wow! An episode with absolutely no flashbacks or crazy hallucinations. That's a change. However, this was definitely the slowest episode out of the four that have aired, and I feel like we are missing something. Don't get me wrong. I have loved just about everything from this season, but it seems like we should be a bit further at this point. Only now do we see the direction for the rest of the season and who our major players are going to be. It's been two hours of set up. When are we getting the punchline?

(S03E03)The Venture Bros. has some of the most incredibly strong secondary characters in the entire cartoon universe. I love their intricate back stories and the delicate explanations of their tendencies and motivations. It's like Lost, but with more robot hands and bad break-ups. That said, is Season Three going to be the season of back stories? I mean, seriously. The first episode was all about the origin of The Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend, the second was an in-depth exploration of Rusty's past affecting his future, and "The Invisible Hand of Fate" taught us more than we ever wanted to know about the early days of Billy Quizboy and Pete White.